Downtown developing a ‘dining district’

Don’t be surprised if the corner of South Polk Street and Seventh Avenue becomes the No. 1 beehive of activity in downtown Amarillo in the near future.

Two more establishments are coming to that intersection: The new location for Crush Wine Bar and Deli and the brand-new Six Car Pub and Brewery.

Center City Executive Director Beth Duke described the location as that spot’s northeast corner, just north of where Crush is today, and she beamed about all the things that are happening there.

“Across the street at 626 S. Polk, we have three new businesses going in: Moondoggy’s Pizza &Pub, Off the Hook steak and seafood and Esquire Jazz Club,” she said. They are currently under construction in the old Woolworth Building.

“Four new restaurants and one new club at that intersection.”

Duke estimated the last new construction on Polk happened in the 1960s, so the project is “huge — all of a sudden, that really begins to anchor our downtown dining district.”

Colin Cummings is one of the co-owners of Yellow City Street Food, which began in March 2013, with Grant James and executive chef Scott Buchanan. The trio is also behind Six Car, which Cummings said has been in their plans for three years.

“We’ve looked forward to it for a long time,” Cummings said. “I think the building will probably be done in November, and hopefully we’ll start serving in January 2018.”

Crush has been a downtown mainstay since 2008. Duke pointed out the business was “a pioneer and trendsetter” when it developed the concept of an upscale deli and wine bar in an area rich in history.

“It made a difference really in bringing life to that corner,” she said. “They were among the first to really take advantage of those old corner storefronts, and I think their business has just grown and grown.”

The architect for the new restaurant building is locally owned Playa Designs. Southwest General Contractors of Amarillo is the company that will build it. And today at 11:30 a.m., ground will be broken there for the two new establishments.

The developers are Dubs Development, co-owned by Tol and William Ware. In a news release, they said both establishments will have indoor, sidewalk and rooftop dining in a structure “architecturally styled to honor the elements of downtown buildings with a modern twist.”

“This is a big step forward,” Tol Ware said. “It will prove that it is cost-effective to build in downtown and there is plenty of demand for development.”

“These unique restaurants plan on using local talent, art, materials and food for their respective spaces,” William Ware added. “Expect stylish, cozy and eclectic finishes displaying local pride and artisan skills.”

Cummings mentioned he and his partners appreciate the homage to local history. For another thing, the name “Six Car” recalls the heyday of the city’s streetcar system that typically had six cars running.

“As Scott, our chef, has said before, we like to have one foot in the past and one foot in the future,” he said. “We like Amarillo’s history and we want to contribute to that.”

The Big Texan Steak Ranch brews its own beer, as does Long Wooden Spoon. But both are six to eight miles from downtown Amarillo, and Long Wooden Spoon’s small store does not serve food.

The new brewpub will have 18 to 20 Six Car brews on tap and will not sell outside beers. Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission allows breweries that exclusively serve homebrews to self-deliver their product to other establishments, meaning Six Car beers could be sold in restaurants without going through a distributor.

Traditional porters and stouts will be joined by outré brews, like a green chile ale. Past creations such as a chamomile cream ale and smoked mesquite lager have earned James the nickname “The Beer Whisperer” from Cummings.

Taste buds will also be walloped by what Buchanan calls “sensory terrorism” in his New American pub fare. The eccentric chef draws out alien flavors with strong ingredients like wasabi greens in many dishes and is already talking up a brisket-short rib combo burger.

“I love the fact that he’s not afraid to just fuse together the flavors that he wants the diner to experience,” James said. “He’s a creative mind who’s not tied to any certain school of thought. He just wants to create a food experience.”

“We do street food, but at the same time, when we have a chance to do something nice to it, we do it,” said Buchanan. “It’ll be the same kind of whimsy you see in my food, but in a downtown environment.”

Cummings noted their business is the most common aspect of any thriving center city.

“Anybody who’s traveled to any other city with a thriving central business district has seen a brew pub downtown,” he informed.

Duke said Six Car will be an important piece of the puzzle, the same way the emergence of downtown’s coffee shops developed a new “coffee culture.”

“People look for that,” she said. “They seek it out when they check into a hotel; they say, ‘Where’s the brew pub?’ It can make your downtown more of a destination.”

Duke said the “dining district” has grown healthily downtown to 32 businesses, not counting the new ones that haven’t opened yet.

“In the ’70s, there were probably three places to eat downtown,” she said. “If you worked downtown, you brought your lunch or you went home.”

The Center City director also said she is excited about the next project in the area — Scratch Made Bakery plans to move from its location on Southwest Sixth Avenue to the old Levine’s building south of the Courtyard by Marriott at the Historic Fisk and rebrand itself as Scratch Made Bakery and Brunchery.

“They have big plans,” she said. “They started a weekend brunch, and now they’ve decided they want to expand and be right there on Polk.”

McKinzie Hodges, who co-owns Scratch Made with Nicole Fleetwood, said construction is scheduled to be done in June, but they do not have an exact move-in date yet.

“We will offer brunch as well as all of our baked goods daily and continue to take special orders for custom cakes, pies, cookies and French macarons,” Hodges said.

Six Car’s Cummings said the latest activity gives downtown “a real fighting chance to become an awesome place.”

“Who wouldn’t want to be at Polk and Seventh? If downtown really does come back, that’s where I want to be,” Cummings said. “It’s been designed to be a downtown icon for years to come.”